Gender Inequalities Are Visible

Published Date: 02 Nov 2017

Biologically, men and women are different. Women’s role in reproduction is thought to lead to ill health and can explain why women have higher morbidity rates than men. Further to this, the gender roles in reproduction mean that men have high levels of testosterone. Testosterone leads to males being more aggressive and will take more risks than their female counterparts will. The role of the male is to assert himself above other males to be a mate for the female to choose to procreate with. Females will choose the male that they believe will provide the best genetic material for their offspring. To show their genetic dominance, males will often take more risks and will fight other males for the female’s attention. The mortality rates for males’ shows this risk-taking attitude as most young males die from accidents or suicide.

A different explanation for the gender differences in health is social construction, in that male and female roles in society are defined to the norm. Since the early nineteenth century, women have adopted the role of mother-housewife, caring for children, husbands and other relatives. This left the men to work and provide for the women. Being left caring for the family, women learned how to care for themselves also. Women will often talk about health problems with other women and go to the doctor if something is wrong. Men, on the other hand, are seen as the providers and the protectors of the family, they tend to not talk openly about health problems and either ignore problems or often will not even know there is a problem as their education in health problems is not as great as a woman’s. This does link to the biological explanation, in that men try to prove their perceived ‘masculinity’ to other members of the male sex and to the opposite sex.

Further to this, as women tend to accept the role of mother-housewife, they often have only part time or temporary jobs. Women tend to be employed in low risk office type jobs, whilst men take laborious jobs and work different shifts. This is because the woman will be at home with the children as expected by society and the man will work. The health risks of working shifts and long hours in hard jobs cause a higher mortality rate. These risk factors are not biological, as women are just as capable as men at the jobs and children are no better or worse off for being raised by their mother whilst their father works, or by their father whilst their mother works. Society has placed the expectancies upon the gender and although the social norms are changing, it is still difficult for a man and a woman to switch the gender role and stereotype. In addition, men have a later retirement age and so have to work longer than women do. Women do however have longer life expectancy and due to this, they develop more health problems in old age. This could be because they live longer than men do, or it could be that there are more women over the age of 60 than men.

A contrasting inequality in health between genders is inherited diseases. A number of diseases such as haemophilia only affect men, as it is a faulty gene on the ‘X’ chromosome. These sex-linked diseases can be carried by women in their DNA and sometimes the will contract the disease (such as colour-blindness). In this way, women are genetically superior to men as their double ‘X’ chromosome prevents these diseases affecting them. Women also tend to be smarter than men are and with their longer life expectancy, the female of the species is better than the male. However, men are required to ensure a genetic mix of DNA for procreation to ensure social and natural selection take place with the next generation.

Another inequality in health is social class. Harts inverse care law states that those who do not need access to health care have better access than those who do. What this means is, people of a higher class who do not require as much heath care, have better access to health care than people of a lower class who need the access. This is due to the general wealth of an area. The wealthier areas of the UK have the best public services available. Shaw et. all (1999) found that the richer areas of the UK had better health care than poorer areas. She showed that it was not just poverty that affected peoples health and that peoples quality of life in poorer areas (even though they were on the same income) was lower and affected their health. However, Shaw’s research was secondary and was collected from a number of different sources. Using secondary research can cause data to be incomplete and some data may not be relevant. Consequently, the information may not be valid and further steps need to be taken to ensure reliability.

Furthermore, with access to better health care and public services, higher-class people (both male and female) have a generally better education. This education gives people knowledge and understanding of risks and how to look after themselves, thus reducing morbidity and mortality rate. Marxists would say that this is how the bourgeoisie maintain their status over the proletariat. By ensuring the bourgeoisie are better educated and given access to better health care, they can continue to exploit the proletariat. With class classification, it is difficult to compare different sections of society. There are many obstacles with social stratification. Prior to 2000 the registrar- general’s scale was used in the UK. It categorised people into six different classes, using the head of the household’s occupation. The scale did not however, include wealthy land owners who did not have jobs, but were living off of inherited wealth. It also excluded unemployed people and housewives. By excluding women’s occupation, the scale did not give an accurate listing of an individual’s class. The scale has since been replaced by the nation statistics-socioeconomic classification. Whilst this scale takes into account the occupation of women and changes in class boundaries, it still does not include wealthy people who do not work. The difficulty with placing a person into the correct social stratification means that research data can be unreliable or inaccurate.

The inequality in health between the classes can also be shown by the living conditions and the social construct of the working class. As the working class have less money and may be in poverty, the food they eat, clothes they wear and homes they live in may be sub-standard and cause health risks. Black (1980) also states that lower classes tended to smoke and drink more and engaged in less exercise than those of a higher class. All of these factors, combined with a poorer access to healthcare clearly define a gap between the health care and overall health of the classes. It can also be said that gender plays a role in the class inequality in health also. It is often the case when a marriage breaks down, that the man will leave the family home and start again. This leaves the woman with any children and without the support of a husband. Because of this, she is unable to work and so may go down on the socioeconomic class scale. This then means she will have worse health and health care, where as the man, now not having the responsibility of being head of the house can move up the class scale and have better health and health care.

There are many explanations for the inequality in health between the genders and the classes. They do all however agree with one thing, in that the inequality gaps are reducing. So eventually, women will have the same access to all that a man can achieve and a man can learn more about his own health and reduce morbidity rates. Furthermore, as the differences between the social classes reduce, the inequality between the classes will also reduce. Marxists believe that eventually equilibrium will be achieved and capitalism will be replaced by communism. This will remove most of the inequalities within health other than biological and genetic differences.

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Office for National Statistics (ONS) (1998) Social Focus on Women and Men London: Stationery Office.

Office for National Statistics (ONS) (1998) Patterns of Pay tables, 1997-2012 London: Stationery Office.